The Architecture of the Byzantine World: From Early Christian Practices to Imperial Patronage

Module Introduction: Byzantine Architecture

• Geographical Shift: Moving from Western Europe (Gothic architecture) south and east to the Mediterranean world, encompassing lands that ring the Mediterranean Sea.

• One exception: Northwestern Russia, to be covered at the module's end.

• Temporal Jump: Moving backward in time to the 4th and 5th centuries CE to examine the architecture of the Byzantine Empire.

• The module will trace Byzantine architecture through the European Middle Ages and up to the 18th century, covering well over a millennium of time.

• Central Theme: Examining how adherents of Christianity, which was slowly becoming a major world religion, invented a new architectural tradition to accommodate their worship.

• Focus on the place of ritual (religious or social) and how architecture responds to it, requiring Christians to invent specific spaces for their worship.

Brief Overview of Early Christianity

• Jesus Christ: Viewed by Christians as the long-promised Messiah of the Hebrew Bible, also referred to as the Son of God, and whose teachings form the foundation of Christianity.

• Early Christian communities often met in private homes or discreet locations due to persecution, particularly before the Edict of Milan in 313 CE (when Christianity gained legal status).

• This lack of formal, public worship spaces initially meant that Christian architecture had to be developed from existing building types or completely innovated.

• Early Worship Needs: The necessity for communal gathering, baptismal rituals, and celebrating the Eucharist (communion) drove the unique spatial requirements for Christian churches.

• Unlike pagan temples, which housed deities and were not primarily for congregational worship, Christian churches needed large interiors to accommodate a growing number of adherents for services.